B2B Travel SaaS provider Itilite has raised funds from Matrix Partners India. Itilite is an end-to-end corporate travel management solution that reduces cost by rewarding employees for saving on travel.
The startup will use the funds to strengthen the technology platform and to expand the team. A number of angel investors also participated in the round.
As per a statement from Matrix, Itilite’s approach is to reward employees for travel savings, thus making them the biggest ambassadors of travel cost reduction. In addition, the platform provides a better travel booking experience using dynamic travel policy integration, self-learning algorithms for trip planning, analytics dashboards for CFOs, and other features.
This approach has helped Itilite’s customers lower travel cost by 30%, while making employees happier. Both the founders, Mayank Kukreja and Anish Khadiya, have worked at McKinsey and Myntra previously.
“We are excited to partner with Matrix to fill the huge gap in the business travel market. Our state-of–the-art technology coupled with behavioral science helps align the incentives of the company and the traveler. I am personally thrilled to see the change in traveler behaviour across our customers, who are now planning their trips in advance and are adopting technology wholeheartedly for a better travel experience,” Mayank Kukreja, Co-Founder, Itilite said.
Corporate travel is a US$ 30B market in India that is largely fragmented and serviced by offline Travel Management Companies. Most companies struggle with meeting employee expectations while preventing a major escalation in travel costs.
Anish Khadiya, Co-Founder of Itilite says that the startup learns employee preferences and surfaces personalized travel options, making the booking process smarter and seamless.
Itilite claims that its USP is an incentive program where employees are rewarded for savings they make for their company during travel. Itilite’s AI powered algorithms predict the cost for every trip and lets the traveller keep half the savings they make by choosing cost conscious options
“Corporate travel is in some sense the final frontier of travel – a large market that has meaningful components that are still offline and manual. Itilite’s innovative SaaS product takes a lot of the friction out of the process. In addition, it also drives cost saving for clients that creates direct bottom-line impact. We are privileged to be in business with Mayank and Anish, and look forward to helping them on their journey to create a large company,” Gourav Bhattacharya, Vice President, Matrix India said in a statement.